NEWSWATCH | KAIROS GLOBAL | MAY 2023

Author: Ajith Jacob

Pope celebrates Holy Week amidst health challenges

Pope Francis presided at the Solemn Mass for Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion one day after being released from hospital, admitted for severe bronchitis. Francis is the third oldest serving pope in history after Leo XIII and Clement XII

Palm Sunday: Jesus turns our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh

In his homily, following the recitation of the Passion, Pope Francis reflected on Christ's cry from the Cross: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? ‘Those words bring us to the very heart of Christ’s Passion, the culmination of the sufferings he endured for our salvation,’ the Pope said.

Pope Francis explained that these weren’t just sufferings of the body, but also of the soul and of the spirit, that amid all these sorrows, Jesus remained certain of one thing: the closeness of the Father. The Holy Father asked the faithful gathered to remember that it is in this way that the Lord saves us and recalled that ‘on the cross, even as he felt utter abandonment, Jesus refused to yield to despair; instead, he prayed and trusted, commending himself into the hands of the Father, despite the distance he felt’. 

Bringing his homily to a close, the Pope asked those following to remember that ‘the rejected and the excluded are living icons of Christ: they remind us of his reckless love, his forsakenness that delivers us from every form of loneliness and isolation’.

Good Friday: Pope joins the Way of the Cross in prayers from his residence

Instead of presiding over the nighttime Way of the Cross seated atop a hillside overlooking Rome's Colosseum, Pope Francis followed the service from his Vatican residence, spiritually united in prayer with the 20,000 people gathered outside the ancient amphitheater on April 7. The cold weather had prevented him from attending as he just left hospital days ago.

Each year, the pope chooses a different person or group of people to write the series of prayers and reflections that are read aloud for each of the 14 stations. The theme this year was ‘Voices of peace in a world at war’. Two nations – Ukraine and Russia – were mentioned by name during the Tenth Station.

The meditation speaks of a Ukrainian family fleeing and then returning to their war-ravaged city as the son holds onto his grandmother's faith and hope that ‘everything will pass, you'll see. And with the help of the good Lord, peace will return’.

The young man from Russia wonders why he feels guilty when he and his friends fear war, his older brother has died, no one knows what has happened to his father and grandfather, and his mother and grandmother weep. ‘Everyone told us we should be proud, but at home there was only much suffering and sadness.’

Easter Vigil and Urbi et Orbi blessing

During the Easter Vigil Mass, Pope Francis mentioned that Easter is the time ‘to roll away the stone of the tombs in which we often imprison our hope and to look with confidence to the future, for Christ is risen and has changed the direction of history… The Lord is an expert in rolling back the stones of sin and fear.’

In his homily, the pope focused on the Gospel story of the women going to Jesus' tomb, ‘bewildered and dismayed, their hearts overwhelmed with grief at the death that took away their beloved.’

In the life of faith, he said, ‘sometimes we too may think that the joy of our encounter with Jesus is something belonging to the past, whereas the present consists mostly of sealed tombs: tombs of disappointment, bitterness and distrust’ or of thinking ‘things will never change’.

But the Gospel says Jesus' women disciples did not stand frozen before the tomb. Rather, he said, they run to the disciples ‘to proclaim a change of course: Jesus is risen and awaits them in Galilee.’ Pope Francis often speaks of the post-Resurrection call to go to Galilee. At the Easter Vigil, he said it is a call to leave the ‘upper room’ where the disciples were hiding in fear and to set out on a mission. But, he said, it is also a call back to the origins of their relationship with Jesus because they met him in Galilee and began following him there.

On the morning of Easter Sunday 2023, Pope Francis presided over Mass in St Peter’s Square before delivering his Urbi et Orbi message and blessing. Urbi et Orbi means ‘To the City [of Rome] and to the World’. It is a special apostolic blessing given by the pope every year on Easter Sunday, Christmas, and other special occasions. Here is a short excerpt from the message:

‘Let us make haste to surmount our conflicts and divisions, and to open our hearts to those in greatest need. Let us hasten to pursue paths of peace and fraternity. Let us rejoice at the concrete signs of hope that reach us from so many countries, beginning with those that offer assistance and welcome to all fleeing from war and poverty.

At the same time, along this journey we also encounter many stumbling stones, which make it more difficult and demanding to hasten towards the Risen Lord. To him, then, let us make our prayer: Lord, help us to run to meet you! Help us to open our hearts!’

Holy week in Aleppo: Suffering and hope

Christians in the war-torn and earthquake-devastated Syrian city of Aleppo are celebrating the Easter Triduum, the holiest period in the Christian calendar, amid the ruins of war and natural calamities. Fr Tony O’Riordan SJ, who has been in Aleppo since the recent earthquakes, is co-ordinating the work of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS)'s humanitarian response in the area.

‘Twelve years of war, grinding poverty, the pandemic, and then the earthquake. They perpetually live a Good Friday.’ Tells Fr O’Riordan

Even before the earthquake, the Irish Jesuit stresses, the situation was ‘desperate’. The disaster thus compounded what was already ‘a very, very difficult struggle for survival, for the basics of life, for food, for shelter, for access to medical care, and just for having adequate income to survive.’ The only silver lining in the situation, he notes, is that winter has given way to spring, making life easier for those who have lost their homes or were struggling to heat them. Because of the suffering they have undergone, Fr O’Riordan says, Syrians are ‘situated well for the story we reenact in Holy Week. There's a real connection with the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus.’ He says what pushes them through all these struggles is the hope; ‘we hope for the resurrection. We hope for a better future for Syria’.

You can know more about the activities of JRS through their website jrs.net.